Woodstock’s Favorite Indie Bookstore Celebrates Two Years of Books and Boldness
“I have this thing,” declares Karen Schwettman, co-owner of the Foxtale Book Shoppe in downtown Woodstock. “I have trouble staying inside the lines.” It was the morning of the book shop’s second anniversary, and I had handed her my notebook, asking her to record for posterity the greatest triumph of the last two years in business. Karen promptly flipped the book over, scrawling sideways across the page. In truth, defying the lines, rebelling against set boundaries, and ceremoniously scoffing at perceived notions of the “proper” way to do things–that’s how the plucky ladies of Foxtale have always carried on. Audaciously marching into the loan officer’s office at the shop’s inception, clad in their signature fedoras and black business suits, co-owner Ellen Ward admitted, “This is either going to be really cool, or it’s going to be a complete disaster.” As it turns out, their “really cool” dream of opening a superior indie bookstore has been an abiding precedent from the very beginning.
Karen Schwettman: “My most triumphant moment (in two years of business was) having Rick Bragg at the shoppe for a signing. That was my dream–’when we open a bookstore MAYBE we can have Rick Bragg.’ He’s my most favorite author and nothing else will ever match the elation I felt that night.”
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Rick Bragg signs copies of his book Prince of Frogtown at a Foxtale Book Shoppe event in May of 2008.
Foxtale Book Shoppe Information
Owners: Jackie Tenase, Karen Schwettman, and Ellen Ward
105 E. Main Street #138 (Behind the downtown gazebo) Woodstock, GA 30188
770-516-9989
Call for more information about book clubs, writing classes, upcoming author signings, open-mic poetry readings, childrens’ story hours, and their new frequent-customer discount card.
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